NBN Book of the Day - Jonathan Haslam, “Hubris: The American Origins of Russia’s War against Ukraine” (Harvard UP, 2025)

Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 should not have taken the world by surprise. The attack escalated a war that began in 2014 with the Russian annexation of Crimea, but its origins are visible as far back as the aftermath of the Cold War, when newly independent Ukraine moved to the center of tense negotiations between Russia and the West. The United States was a leading player in this drama. In fact, Jonathan Haslam argues, it was decades of US foreign policy missteps and miscalculations, unchecked and often reinforced by European allies, that laid the groundwork for the current war.

Isolated, impoverished, and relegated to a second-order power on the world stage, Russia grew increasingly resentful of Western triumphalism in the wake of the Cold War. The United States further provoked Russian ire with a campaign to expand NATO into Eastern Europe--especially Ukraine, the most geopolitically important of the former Soviet republics. Determined to extend its global dominance, the United States repeatedly ignored signs that antagonizing Russia would bring consequences. Meanwhile, convinced that Ukraine was passing into the Western sphere of influence, Putin prepared to shift the European balance of power in Russia's favor.

Timely and incisive, Hubris: The American Origins of Russia's War against Ukraine (Harvard UP, 2025) reveals the assumptions, equivocations, and grievances that have defined the West's relations with Russia since the twilight of the Soviet Union--and ensured that collision was only a matter of time.

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What A Day - Is This An ‘Administrative Coup’?

Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, has seemingly been waging a personal war on the federal government via his Department of Government Efficiency. In the last few weeks, he and his team have urged millions of federal workers to resign, fed the U.S. Agency for International Development 'into the wood chipper,' and gotten access the Treasury Department’s secure payment system. And on Wednesday, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced Musk's DOGE team would soon ‘plug in’ to the air traffic control system. Charlie Warzel, a staff writer at The Atlantic covering tech and media, says Musk's actions amount to 'an administrative coup.' 

Later in the show, Crooked Media’s news editor, Greg Walters, shares stories from federal workers dealing with the fallout.

And in headlines: The White House does damage control over Trump’s plans for the U.S. to ‘take over the Gaza Strip,’ the president signed yet another executive order targeting trans kids, and Scotland says it’s not banning cats.

Show Notes:

The NewsWorthy - Trans Athletes Banned, DeepSeek Security & NY Fashion Week- Thursday, February 6, 2025

The news to know for Thursday, February 6, 2025!

We're talking about President Trump's latest action on transgender issues. This time, it's to keep transgender athletes out of girls' sports.

Also, as more diversity programs get scrapped, there are fears over a "DEI watch list" posted online.

Plus, we'll tell you about a big turnaround in Army recruitment, more changes coming to Starbucks cafes, and the biggest names in fashion coming together today.

Those stories and even more news to know in about 10 minutes! 

 

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The Best One Yet - 👵🏻 “Betty White Bump” — The Best Super Bowl ad ever. Waffle House’s egg fee. Shein’s tariff trauma.

The #1 Super Bowl ad? Snickers in 2010… because Snickers acted like a Freudian therapist.

Waffle House is charging a 50-cent-per-egg fee… but we tell ya who to blame for Egg-flation is.

New tariffs just hit Shein and Temu… hand it can all be explained with Barbie dolls.

Plus, the newest job in America is “TikTok Coach”... because there is an “i” in “viral.”


$CALM $MAT $SPY


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The Indicator from Planet Money - How would a US sovereign wealth fund even work?

What is a sovereign wealth fund? President Trump's executive order calling for a plan to start a U.S. sovereign wealth fund is not a new idea. But it remains a topic of much debate among economists and policymakers. So is a national sovereign wealth fund a good or even viable idea?

A version of this episode originally aired Oct. 1, 2024.

Related episode:
Why oil in Guyana could be a curse

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Sierra Juarez. Music by Drop Electric. Find us: TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Newsletter.


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NPR's Book of the Day - ‘The Interpreter’ is a story about children who act as translators for their parents

Cecilia, the main character in Olivia Abtahi's The Interpreter, wears an oversized green suit and tie. She's a kid, but she also works as a translator and interpreter for her immigrant parents. Whether at the DMV, the doctor's office or the mechanic, she's there to help out with cultural translation. The story, illustrated by Monica Arnaldo, is based on Abtahi's own experience growing up with an Iranian father and an Argentine mother who both spoke English, but sometimes needed support with cultural nuance. In today's episode, Abtahi speaks with Here & Now's Scott Tong about how translation is a full-time, adult job that can place a lot of pressure on young children. They also discuss the filial duty that first-generation kids sometimes feel and the importance of depicting the parents in the book with dignity.

To listen to Book of the Day sponsor-free and support NPR's book coverage, sign up for Book of the Day+ at plus.npr.org/bookoftheday

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Tech Won't Save Us - How Spotify Remade the Music Industry w/ Liz Pelly

Paris Marx is joined by Liz Pelly to discuss how Spotify changes how we listen to music and the broader impacts it has on the wider music industry.

Liz Pelly is a music journalist and the author of Mood Machine.

Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon.

The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Eric Wickham.

Also mentioned in this episode:

  • You can read an excerpt of Liz’s book in Harper’s.
  • The CEO of Suno AI said people “don’t enjoy” making music.

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What Next | Daily News and Analysis - Guantanamo Bay’s Comeback Is a Warning

Last week, Donald Trump announced that Guantanamo Bay would be used to house the “worst criminal illegal aliens” and claimed that it would be drastically scaled up to hold as many as 30,000 people. In addition to its infamous role in the War on Terror, it’s the latest use of Gitmo as an immigration deterrent—and legal grey zone.


Guest: Andrea Pitzer, author of One Long Night: A Global History of Concentration Camps



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Podcast production by Elena Schwartz, Paige Osburn, Anna Phillips, Madeline Ducharme and Rob Gunther.

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Risky Business with Nate Silver and Maria Konnikova - Air Travel, Alcohol, and How to Bet On a Coin Toss

Our intuitive risk assessments can be way off–we’re too scared of hijackings, and not scared enough of crossing the street. This week, Nate and Maria discuss the real risks of plane travel, and of drinking alcohol. Then, they debate whether the sharp money is on heads or tails in the Super Bowl coin toss, and make a very serious bet about whether the national anthem will move any players or coaches to tears.

Plus, Nate and Maria answer a listener question about the value of betting on underdogs for Pushkin+ subscribers.

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